First Comes Like (Modern Love #3) - Alisha Rai Page 0,104

wanted me to, or I could be happy and do what I wanted.

“I don’t care,” she said crisply, and her mother reared back like she’d been stabbed.

“Exactly that,” Shweta said. “Dixits create our own narrative. We will say it is a love match, and Dev wished for his poor grandmother to witness the union. No one will question this.”

Her mother gritted her teeth. “Ayesha. Talk some sense into your sister.”

Ayesha leaned forward, her eyes big. “Jia, are you sure?”

“Very.”

Ayesha sat back. “Okay.”

“That’s all you can say?” Farzana asked her daughter.

Jia tensed. Jia is too much. Jia is a lot.

“She’s being sensible.” Ayesha took a sip of her water. “She’s got a gut feeling if she’s this certain. Her gut is always right.”

Warmth spread through Jia. She hadn’t really thought her sister would betray her in front of their parents, but this was nice confirmation.

Farzana pressed her lips together and crossed her arms over her chest, momentarily outnumbered. “Humph.”

Shweta rubbed her hands together briskly. “Now, let’s start getting plans together for a celebration tomorrow, eh? Adil, we will have to come up with the perfect menu.”

Chapter Twenty-Three

DEV FOUND Shweta in her small office, and he entered without waiting for permission. He sat across from the desk and gazed at the top of his grandmother’s head. There was a slight bald patch forming at the crown there that he’d never noticed. She lifted her head and peered at him over her glasses. “Stop,” she barked.

“Stop what?”

“Staring at me.”

“I’m merely trying to figure out what your game is. First of all, are you really sick?”

“I have some blockages in my arteries, the doctor says.”

Another jolt of that worry and unease, at the thought of his indomitable grandmother being ill. He had complicated feelings about his brother’s and grandfather’s deaths. They’d be multiplied tenfold for Aji. “What does that mean? Are you actually dying?”

She played with her pen, then set it down. “Not exactly. It’s manageable with medicine and diet.” She pouted. “They want me to go vegetarian, can you imagine?”

Dev heaved a sigh of relief and made a mental note to talk to Adil about tasty vegetarian meals for her. “You can’t lie about this stuff. You made it sound like you were expiring on the spot.”

Shweta made an unbothered noise. “I do what I need to do.”

“Can I ask you something? Why are you so determined to see me married before the deadline? I told you I don’t care about the money—”

“I care.” Her soft words cut him off quicker than a shout would have. “I have tried to break that will, and I cannot. And if you don’t get money, Luna doesn’t get any money, and I won’t have that. I can leave you what’s mine, but you deserve his money as well.” Shweta shook her head, and he was shocked to see tears shining in her eyes. “He kept my son and you and Rohan from me all those years. I won’t let him rob you of your birthright.”

“You . . .” Dev leaned forward in his chair. “Wait, did you say he did? Like you had no part in disowning my parents?” He regretted the words as soon as he said them. One of the silent understandings of their relationship was that they didn’t talk about the past. “Never mind.”

She blinked rapidly. “No. No, let me clear something up. What say did you think I had in that house? Your grandfather sent my baby boy away, and kept my grandsons from me as well, and then your parents died there, far from me. You were so grown-up and distant when you came back. I had a chance with Rohan so I gave him as much money as I could, trying to make up for everything. And even that was wrong, because all it did was spoil him, like it spoiled . . .” She took a deep breath and looked back at her computer. It was a credit to her years of acting that she was able to recover her composure so quickly. She typed something on her keyboard and then closed her laptop. “The lawyers will have the prenup ready by morning.”

Were they done talking about the past? Because for once, he wanted to pry into that box. “No prenup.”

“Yes, prenup. Or she could take you for half your wealth a week after marriage.”

“I don’t care if she does. That money isn’t mine.” If anything, it was a relief that she’d get something out of this if he